Civic Pride in a Lost America: Library Postcards
Carnegie Libraries of Ohio
Cities A-C
Ohio is traditionally considered to have the best public library service among the states. They certainly started off with a boatload of Carnegie grant money.
Akron
Rotograph card, mailed in 1907.
Late 1901 grant. Built 1904.
Replaced in 1942. In use as lawyers' offices today.
Alliance
The Red Carnation City.
Attractive German postcard from Rotograph of New York City. Evenly divided back: its stamp evaded cancellation.
Replaced by Rodman Public Library in 1963. Demolished in 1974.
Two more cards can be seen on the Ohio Library Postcard page.
Amherst
Prior to 1906, library needs were met by reading rooms.
1904 brought a Carnegie grant. The original building was renovated in 1976 (information from the Library's web site).
Curt Teich 'American Art' card, mailed 1917. Didn't their retouchers make this building's setting beautiful?
Ashtabula
(L) Copyright 1905 by the Rotograph Co., and mailed in 1906. It bears the frightening news, '...Bert is sick typhoid fever.' Not all was idyllic in the penny postcard world.
(R) Metropolitan News postcard, mailed in 1909.
(R, below) Curt Teich card, also featuring the high school.
Built in 1903, this is a bit more Federal than many Carnegie libraries. Heavily damaged by a fire during an 1990 renovation, the building has returned to use.
The ACPL site only briefly alludes to the recovery help from Chicagoans, but I want to give the much-maligned columnist Bob Greene, formerly of the Chicago Tribune, his deserved respect. In his January 13, 1991 column he stated the extent of the damage, especially to the children's books.
Ashtabula had 4,000 books destroyed. Chicagoans responded by sending 30,000 books.
Athens
Located on the Ohio University campus, it served as a public library from 1905 until approximately 1930. Today it's a classroom, Scripps Hall.
Notice anything strange about these two E. R. Lash postcards?
Bellefontaine
Now part of Logan County District Library.
Early 1903 grant. Replaced by the Knowlton Library in 1994. Still standing - and beige - as of early 2017, post 2013 windstorm. It serves as county offices.
(L) Tinted card, with N.N. mark, mailed in 1911.
(R) Tinted card, with two people sitting near the doorway. Mailed 1912.
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Bellevue
1903 grant: still in use, with a 1987 addition.
From the F.S.H.P.C. Co., of Bellevue, Ohio. I seriously doubt the F.S.H. stands for follicle stimulating hormone.
Curt Teich card, mailed in 1945. It's a lot older: its code puts it to 1913. One would think that shopkeepers dragged some deadstock out as the war dragged on.
Delicate winter scene on a Curt Teich card, mailed in 1938.
It's so fun to find photo cards of both the interior and exterior of a Carnegie library.
(L) Product of the Leiter Post Card Company. Do you see the Sansevieria on the desk?
(R) J.H. Cave card. Except for the leaded glass window above the doors, this had to have been the plainest library in Ohio.
Bryan
Library first organized in 1882: now part of the Williams County Public Library. Grant, 1903; built 1904; first addition in 1956; West annex, 2006.
(L) Mailed in 1914.
(R) Curt Teich 'C.T. American Art' postcard, 'Art' being the operative word here. I think Curt diverted a motel specialist to his library accounts.
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Bucyrus
Stark solitude.
This Commercialchrome has many details left by the retoucher, including a potted plant by the steps, and a group of bicyclists near the entry. Isn't leaving bikes in the walkway rather rude?
Post-1962 chrome card shows a mailbox, not to be confused with a book drop; and a book drop, not to be confused with a mailbox.
Opened 1906. A 1989 addition enabled it to remain in use.
The corner lot variant Carnegie building is not as common in the eastern as in the western United States.
Cambridge
(L) One of the highlights of this card is the group of people on the front steps.
(R) 'Public Library and Baptist Church, Cambridge, Ohio.' This was one of the first linen finish cards, issued by Curt Teich in 1930.
1902 grant.
Now known as the Guernsey County District Library, consisting of two branches and the bookmobile.
The Carnegie building is still in use.
Canton
Now known as the Stark County District Library.
The Carnegie building was built in 1900 and superceded in 1978. The facility is now law offices. I'm sure the early bookmobile (aka Stark County Traveling Library) didn't have such a happy landing.
Carey (Dorcas Carey Library)
1904 grant.
The history on the Carey Waymarking page emphasizes the contribution of the town to obtaining its library.
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What looks like a dome on the Commercialchrome card is just a wall on the picture on the Library's web site. In addition, the color is different.
Celina
The card has an unevenly divided back, but was mailed in 1914.
Late 1904 grant. Replaced by Mercer County District Public Library. Demolished.
Classical Revival (Type A) architecture with a decorative carving over the entry.
Chillicothe
1903 grant. Still in use.
An umbrella plant enjoys a sunny vacation in front of the brick library building. The Red tower is not part of the library's structure.
This is an I. Robbins 'Randson' card that has a suspicious resemblance to Curt Teich's 'C.T. American Art' series of the 1920s.
Cincinnati and Cleveland have their own page
Clyde
(L) Sky-Tint card helps locate the library in relation to its neighborhood. Trees indicate that this is the newest of my
three cards.
(R) Beautiful German card for the Cleveland News Company.
OK, it is the cutest Carnegie library, hands down.
Built in 1906 out of Sandusky granite: renovated 1996.
Columbus
(L) Card never mailed. On back:
State Supt. Conference, Jan 12 and 13th, 1911, Columbus, Ohio.
(R) From the back of the card:
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This series of Columbus Dispatch Post Cards
Consists of 16 subjects. A Post Card Coupon cut from THE Dispatch gets you one card; 15 Coupons get you the entire series. No Charge.
Building still in use, but appears from its current web site iteration that the Main building is under renovation.
Salient points: Carnegie building built 1903; Special services building added 1953; renovation, 1990.
And by the way, the promotion apparently worked; the newspaper's still going strong.
Conneaut
Late 1904 grant, according to Bobinski. 1907 grant, according to the library web history page. Opened in 1909: replaced in 1998.
Coshocton
Late 1902 grant: opened in 1904. Vacant since 1974. A 2021 news article offers us some hope that this building could become a museum, similar to the reuse of the similarly abandoned Waukegan, IL Carnegie building.
(L) E.C. Kropp tinted card.
(R) Curt Teich 'American Art' card, subjected to some artless indignities in subsequent years.
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